Contribution to the climatological study of lightning

Michalon, Nathalie; Nassif, Ayman Y.; Saouri, T.; Royer, Jean‐François; Pontikis, Constantin

doi:10.1029/1999gl010837

Cited by 65 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Does the explanation lie in a contrast in surface properties (including topography), that translate to a contrast in the instabilities that drive vertical air motion? Or is the contrast in lightning related to aerosol-a ected cloud microphysics, as hypothesized (but not demonstrated) in Michalon et al (1999), McCollum et al (2000), and Williams et al (2002)? A detailed comparative analysis of hydrological and thermodynamic conditions in the Amazon and Congo basins is undertaken to address these questions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Lightning, thermodynamic and hydrological comparison of the two tropical continental chimneys

Williams

Sátori

2004

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

151

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Lightning, thermodynamic and hydrological comparison of the two tropical continental chimneys

Williams

Sátori

2004

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

151

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Flash rates are correlated with numerous meteorological variables, including surface temperature [Price, 1993;Williams and Stanfill, 2002;Markson, 2007], convective available potential energy (CAPE) [Rutledge et al, 1992], cloud top height [Price and Rind, 1992;Price et al, 1997], cold-cloud depth [Futyan and Del Genio, 2007;Yoshida et al, 2009], convective precipitation [Meijer et al, 2001], upper tropospheric convective mass flux , integrated convective mass flux [Deierling et al, 2005], updraft vertical velocity or volume Barthe et al, 2010], precipitation ice mass, path, or flux Barthe et al, 2010], and aerosol concentration [Michalon et al, 1999;Andreae et al, 2004;Altaratz et al, 2010;Yuan et al, 2011].…”

Section: Appendix A: Lightning Parameterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of tropical tropospheric composition to lightning NO_x production as determined by replay simulations with GEOS‐5

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The sensitivity of tropical tropospheric composition to the source strength of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) produced by lightning (LNO x ) is analyzed for September through November 2007 using the NASA GEOS-5 model constrained by MERRA fields, with full GMI stratospheric-tropospheric chemistry and an LNO x algorithm that is appropriate for use in a climate modeling setting; satellite retrievals from OMI, TES, and OMI/MLS; and in situ measurements from SHADOZ ozonesondes. Global mean LNO x production rates of 0 to 492 mol NO flash À1 and the subsequent responses of NO x , ozone (O 3 ), hydroxyl radical (OH), nitric acid (HNO 3 ), peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), and NO y (NO x + HNO 3 + PAN) are investigated. The radiative implications associated with LNO x -induced changes in tropospheric O 3 are assessed. Increasing the LNO x production rate by a factor of 4 (from 123 to 492 mol flash À1) leads to tropical upper tropospheric enhancements of greater than 100% in NO x , OH, HNO 3 , and PAN. This increase in LNO x production also leads to O 3 enhancements of up to 60%, which subsequently yields a factor-of-three increase in the mean net radiative flux at the tropopause. An LNO x source of 246 mol flash À1 agrees reasonably well with measurements, with an approximate factor-of-two uncertainty due to the short length of the study, inconsistencies in the observational data sets, and systematic biases in modeled LNO x production. Further research into the regional dependencies of lightning flash rates and LNO x production per flash, along with improvements in satellite retrievals, should help resolve the discrepancies that currently exist between the model and observations.

show abstract

“…The cloud top heights may be large without active updrafts and hence without active lightning. Later, other approaches were developed based on a combination of latent heat release and cloud-top-height (Flatøy and Hov, 1997), convective precipitation rate (CPR) (Meijer et al, 2001;Allen and Pickering, 2002), convective available potential energy (CAPE) (Choi et al, 2005), land-ocean cloud CCN spectrum differences (Michalon et al, 1999;Jourdain and Hauglustaine, 2001), or convectively induced updraft velocity (UPD) (Allen et al, 2000;Grewe et al, 2001;Allen and Pickering, 2002;Kurz and Grewe, 2002). Besides a few observations (Lhermitte and Krehbiel, 1979), conceptual flash models indicate that flash rates are correlated with a high power (order of six) of the strength of storm updrafts (Baker et al, 1995(Baker et al, , 1999.…”

Section: Alternative Lightning Parameterisationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global lightning-induced nitrogen oxides source

2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The knowledge of the lightning-induced nitrogen oxides (LNO x ) source is important for understanding and predicting the nitrogen oxides and ozone distributions in the troposphere and their trends, the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere, and the lifetime of trace gases destroyed by reactions with OH. This knowledge is further required for the assessment of other important NO x sources, in particular from aviation emissions, the stratosphere, and from surface sources, and for understanding the possible feedback between climate changes and lightning. This paper reviews more than 3 decades of research. The review includes laboratory studies as well as surface, airborne and satellite-based observations of lightning and of NO x and related species in the atmosphere. Relevant data available from measurements in regions with strong LNO x influence are identified, including recent observations at midlatitudes and over tropical continents where most lightning occurs. Various methods to model LNO x at cloud scales or globally are described. Previous estimates are re-evaluated using the global annual mean flash frequency of 44±5 s −1 reported from OTD satellite data. From the review, mainly of airborne measurements near thunderstorms and cloud-resolving models, we conclude that a "typical" thunderstorm flash produces 15 (2-40)×10 25 NO molecules per flash, equivalent to 250 mol NO x or 3.5 kg of N mass per flash with uncertainty factor from 0.13 to 2.7. Mainly as a result of global model studies for various LNO x parameterisations tested with related observations, the best estimate of the annual global LNO x nitrogen mass source and its uncertainty range is (5±3) Tg a −1 in this study. In spite of a smaller global flash rate, the best estimate is essentially the same as in some earlier reviews, implying larger flash-specific NO x emissions. The paper estimates the LNO x accuracy required for various applications and lays out strategies for improving estimates in the future. An accuracy of Correspondence to: U. Schumann (ulrich.schumann@dlr.de) about 1 Tg a −1 or 20%, as necessary in particular for understanding tropical tropospheric chemistry, is still a challenging goal.

show abstract

Contribution to the climatological study of lightning

Abstract: Abstract.In

Cited by 65 publications

References 19 publications

Lightning, thermodynamic and hydrological comparison of the two tropical continental chimneys

Lightning, thermodynamic and hydrological comparison of the two tropical continental chimneys

Sensitivity of tropical tropospheric composition to lightning NO_x production as determined by replay simulations with GEOS‐5

The global lightning-induced nitrogen oxides source

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Contribution to the climatological study of lightning

Abstract: Abstract.In

Cited by 65 publications

References 19 publications

Lightning, thermodynamic and hydrological comparison of the two tropical continental chimneys

Lightning, thermodynamic and hydrological comparison of the two tropical continental chimneys

Sensitivity of tropical tropospheric composition to lightning NOx production as determined by replay simulations with GEOS‐5

The global lightning-induced nitrogen oxides source

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Sensitivity of tropical tropospheric composition to lightning NO_x production as determined by replay simulations with GEOS‐5